Wednesday, 28 December 2016

Mosul residents face battle for survival

Mosul residents face battle for survival

MOSUL, Iraq – When fighting closed in on his neighbourhood in Mosul,
father of three Nashwan’s brother warned him it was time to leave. Hours
later, the family home was partially destroyed.
“My brother saved me,” said Nashwan, as he stood outside the
temporary home in the war-ravaged city where he is sheltering with 40
members of his extended family – most of them young children who
thronged around him as he spoke.

The family huddles together in just three rooms of the house,
belonging to a relative who previously fled the push by Iraqi forces to
retake the country’s second city from extremists. Nashwan has since
returned twice to his old home to inspect the damage and collect a few
belongings.

“When I entered the house I was sad. But after a moment I thought:
‘Thank God I managed to escape.’ If we had stayed there we would have
been slaughtered,” he said.
The family is still within range of artillery fire as the battle for
the city rages. As temperatures in Mosul plummet towards freezing, they
live without clean water, enough food or any power.

“When we fled I couldn’t even take our clothes, but the most
important thing to us is food and water,” he added. Prior to the battle,
he had been working as a taxi driver to support his relatives, who are
jobless.
So far, more than 108,000 thousand Iraqis have fled Mosul since the
fight to retake the city from extremists began on October 17, with most
seeking shelter in camps operated by the government and UNHCR, the UN
Refugee Agency.
But thousands of families like that of Nashwan remain displaced
inside Mosul, or have returned to the city despite the ongoing battle.
They are forced to find whatever shelter they can in outlying areas of
the city as far from the fighting as possible

Many risk death from stray mortar rounds and stay in bullet-scarred
houses abandoned by other families. They are unable to return to their
own homes, which have either been destroyed or are located in areas
where the fighting is even more intense.
“As the security situation continues to deteriorate, it is vital that
civilians still remaining in Mosul are not prevented from leaving the
city and are allowed access to safety,” said UNHCR’s Representative in
Iraq, Bruno Geddo.
“Civilians in Mosul face a stark choice. If they stay, they risk
hunger and being caught in the crossfire. If they flee, they risk being
killed by snipers or landmines,” he added.

As night-time temperatures drop close to freezing, those displaced
within Mosul are in desperate need of food, clean water, blankets,
clothes and kerosene for heating.
UNHCR has stepped up winter distributions to parts of Mosul, handing
out 53,536 thermal blankets and quilts in recent weeks to those in need.
Nashwan said he wants to go back home, but cannot as fighting rages.
Furthermore, essential items like medicine for family members with
conditions including diabetes and high blood pressure are unavailable
closer to the front lines. Last week, he received two parcels of thermal
blankets and mattresses from a UNHCR partner organization.

“We need this,” he said. “We are very low in terms of blankets and
mattresses – we have three people sleeping under one blanket. We fled
with our souls when the explosions and firing started. We ran away so
quickly that there was no time to prepare anything. We fled even without
our shoes.”
Faiza Abed, 30, walked for one hour to reach a UNHCR distribution
from her Mosul neighbourhood, where she lives in an abandoned building.
“I came to get the blankets, I have a son who is disabled and our
situation is bad, we have nothing to cover us,” she said.
“I live in an unfinished building so I need something to cover up.”
Her family moved to eastern Mosul with their 20 sheep two years ago,
after armed groups took control of their village and all work dried up.

During the fighting she dug a hole in the ground inside the house for
her and her son to shelter in. “We got very scared. We made the hole so
we could hide.”